Kakao Junshinwi "Completion of Recommendations on 3 Major Agendas... Establishment of This Year's Operation Plan"

The Kakao Compliance and Trust Committee (Junshinwi), an independent body supporting compliance and trust management of Kakao’s affiliated companies, announced on the 15th that the group has completed all improvements recommended under the three key agendas of 'responsible management,' 'ethical leadership,' and 'restoration of social trust.'

Junshinwi recently held its first regular meeting of the year and received a final report from Kakao on the implementation status of the improvement plans for the three key agenda recommendations. Han Sang-woo, CEO of Kakao Games; Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility; and Shin Won-geun, CEO of Kakao Pay attended and also explained each company’s outlook for 2025 and improvements to compliance systems.

Previously, in February last year, Junshinwi established the three key agendas for Kakao’s sustainable growth and recommended that Kakao prepare improvement plans for each agenda. Kakao announced the improvement plans at the Junshinwi workshop in June last year and subsequently refined the detailed contents in the second half of the year while beginning full-scale implementation.

Regarding responsible management, the role of the group’s control tower CA council was strengthened. Procedures for prior and post-review were enhanced for decision-making with significant social impact, such as large-scale investments. In addition, an external verification process was established for executive appointments, and a basis was created to impose compensation liability on executives who cause damage to the company due to their own fault.

As a measure to establish ethical leadership, Kakao decided to establish an executive code of ethics based on ▲innovation accompanied by social responsibility ▲accountability for decision-making processes and outcomes ▲compliance with fairness and ethics ▲respect and trust, and to incorporate it into executive contracts.

Regarding the restoration of social trust, Kakao plans to formalize shareholder protection policies in its Corporate Governance Charter. This is to prevent concerns about the decline in parent company shareholder value due to subsidiary listings. In the improvement plans announced last year, Kakao promised to conduct IPOs after thorough prior verification procedures and to prepare shareholder value protection measures.

Furthermore, Kakao stated at the regular meeting that it will specify a clause in the Corporate Governance Charter on 'prior review of shareholder interest infringement during IPOs and preparation of shareholder protection measures.'

Kakao intends to strengthen mandatory communication to protect parent company shareholders when promoting subsidiary IPOs, and to prepare shareholder value protection measures tailored to the characteristics of subsidiaries, such as subsidiary size and minority shareholder ratio.

Junshinwi also discussed its operational plan for this year at the regular meeting. The focus will be on ▲advancing the compliance system ▲strengthening social trust ▲establishing a compliance management framework reflecting the characteristics of platform companies.

Chairperson Kim So-young said, "We will do our best to help Kakao restore social trust in the new year as well."